Let's start with the business end of the H80, the newly designed head unit. Where the H60 had a flat top, the H80 keeps the square shape, but the top this time has a large push button to allow fan speed control. This button allows for three stages of cooling. There is the Low Noise setting where the pair of fans that connect directly to the side of the head unit, get powered up to 1300 RPM and offer 46 CFM of airflow with 1.6 mm/H20 of static pressure. Balanced will offer you fan speed of around 2000 RPM, and likely about 75 CFM of airflow and just less than 4 mm/H2O worth of pressure. Then there is the third level, High Performance, and here you are offered 2500 RPM, 39 dBA of noise, and an amazing 7.7 mm/H2o of static pressure to force that air through the tiny spaces. The head unit also keeps the same mounting system we saw with the H60, where it is metal bars screwed into the head unit and thumbscrew hardware to secure it. This is much better to work with than the Asetek "ring" mounting. Inside the head unit, there are the controls needed for the fan control, the pump and a connection for the Link system all tied up neatly into a tiny little package.

The Copper cooling plate, pump and controls can only cool the processor so much; it needs the coolant, tubing and radiator to have any chance of cooling the unit. The tubing is the same diameter black rubber tubing we are used to seeing with its low-permeability rating and ease to be very flexible. Keeping you from accidentally puncturing the tubing and aiding against kinks in the tube, there is a corrugated plastic shell that covers both of the 10" tubes. This tubing helps keep the fluid from passing through the tubes and allowing Corsair to believe that in five years, the same amount of coolant they pre-fill in this unit will still be there, hence the warranty period. Then of course you have to have some sort of radiator to give the pair of fans a place to cool the fluid. The H80 uses the thinner radiator that we saw on the H60, dimensionally, but this time there are side panels riveted to the sides of this radiator.

It seems there was a bit of a cloud over this and the H100 when they released. I saw a lot of talk of these units and before we could even get a sneak peek of these to bring to you, they seem to have shown up on shelves almost by magic with little to no hype. I only received my sample a week or so ago and already I see Google shopping is listing sixty-six locations I can find one. Pricing is really all over the place and with what I have seen released before, I would have expected a slightly higher release price than what most are currently charging. There are a few listings under the $100 mark, but only a couple like AVADirect or Overstock.com would be somewhat "safer" purchases. I also found that my local haunt has a reasonable pricing. Newegg.com is currently getting $109.99, which seems like it might be $10 more than others, but that scale doesn't stop here. If you are stuck by location or for some odd reason you buy on a whim, be prepared to pay up to an over $150 in some locations.